GOP: TPP Doesn’t Rig Rules, Destroy Sovereignty Enough

“Establishment” Republicans are warning that the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) might not have enough Republican votes to pass right away. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, for example, said that President Barack Obama should not submit TPP to Congress for a vote before November 2016 election.

McConnell, who previously supported efforts to enhance Obama’s trade negotiating powers, signaled that he was undecided on how he would vote on the deal, but he was clear that the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) would be defeated if it were sent to Capitol Hill next spring or summer, as the administration was planning to do.

Doesn’t Rig Rules, Destroy US Sovereignty Enough

Do you think the reason TPP might not get enough establishment Republican votes is because of overwhelming public opposition to the deal (as voiced on the right by Donald Trump)? Do you think it is faltering because of the opposition of labor unions, environmental organizations, consumer groups, human rights activists and democracy/ good government proponents?

What planet are you living on?

The reason TPP might not get enough establishment Republican votes is that it does not destroy American sovereignty enough and does not rig the rules against working people enough.

Tobacco

The TPP contains a “corporate courts” provision known as Investor-State Dispute Settlement (ISDS). ISDS empowers corporations to sue governments if their laws or regulations impede profits. The case is brought up before a court consisting of corporate attorneys. The government’s courts, legislature, and the public can’t do a thing about it. ISDS in other “trade” agreements is so bad that it empowers tobacco companies to sue governments over efforts to try to help people quit smoking or keep kids from starting, because that cuts into tobacco company profits.

“…McConnell has expressed support in the past for trade, he has warned the White House not to target tobacco growers in a final deal. The deal includes a provision that gives countries more power to regulate manufactured tobacco products, such as cigarettes, as part of any efforts to protect public health … The White House has argued that the tobacco provisions are narrowly focused on health issues and don’t affect the trade of tobacco leaf. But the move has already led to the loss of Republican votes on both sides of the Capitol.”

A “tobacco carve-out” … was added because the agreement contains investor-state dispute settlement (ISDS) provisions that will allow corporations to sue governments that use laws or regulations to try to restrict what the companies do. These provisions restrict the ability of governments to protect their citizens so thoroughly that tobacco companies have used ISDS provisions in similar agreements to sue governments that try to help smokers quit or prevent children from starting smoking. TPP proponents felt that this carve-out will help TPP to pass, while the ability to limit other laws and regulations remains.

To try to help get TPP passed, negotiators put in a “tobacco carve out” that restricts tobacco companies from suing. So tobacco companies — and establishment Republicans — complain that this is “discrimination” because other corporations can still sue, no matter how harmful, dangerous, toxic, unethical, hazardous, painful, frightening, destructive, unhealthy, immoral, or otherwise horrible their product or service is, government’s can’t try to stop them and protect their citizens if it cuts into profits.

Hatch has been concerned about provisions that would offer pharmaceutical companies that develop next-generation biologic drugs about eight years of protections for intellectual property, four years fewer than is currently available under U.S. laws.

The TPP grants these companies an eight-year monopoly on their products, in which time they can charge whatever they want, anywhere that TPP is in force. Eight years. This isn’t enough rule-rigging for them.

Don’t let these “conservative” politicians pretend they are for anything except rigging the rules for the giant corporations and billionaires that fund their campaigns, and hire them at lucrative, obscene reward-salaries after they leave office.

About Dave Johnson

Dave has more than 20 years of technology industry experience. His earlier career included technical positions, including video game design at Atari and Imagic. He was a pioneer in design and development of productivity and educational applications of personal computers. More recently he helped co-found a company developing desktop systems to validate carbon trading in the US.